Tech

Hands on with the Apple iPhone SE

CUPERTINO, California — If you’ve ever held an iPhone 5S, then you already know how the iPhone SE feels.

It is the body of an iPhone 5S with the guts of an iPhone 6S. Think of it as a little, upstart brother for the big, bold iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, showing off with a 12-megapixel camera, 4K video capabilities and just as much performance as the big guys.

Apple unveiled the 4-inch iPhone at its spring product event and I got to spend a decent amount of hands-on time with the iPhone SE. Honestly, it’s a strange experience. Imagine holding your iPhone 5 or 5S and wishing it could be something more, but without changing the thing you love about it most — its super-palmable size.

As much as I like the iPhone 6S’s curves (which harken back to the iPod Fifth Gen), I always loved the iPhone 5 and 5S's sharp lines, aluminum band and chamfered edges. Holding the iPhone SE was like reconnecting with an old friend.

First look at the new iPhone SE

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

And did I mention it starts at $399? (For only 16 GB – I know.)

It’s nice to see Apple achieve that new price floor for the iPhone while still increasing performance through a collection of new components. The A9 chip remains a stunner (bested only by the A9X, which sits inside the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro).

I played a racing game that looked sharp and bright on the Retina screen. Game play action was smooth, but I have been spoiled by the larger iPhone 6S's 4.7-inch screen. I doubt I could go back to this 4-inch display.

Big picture

Apple went all the way on the photo side, squeezing in its latest 12-megapixel iSight camera, complete with the focus pixels for faster autofocus and low-light performance. Since the iPhone SE isn’t as thin as the iPhone 6S, the camera lens is actually completely flush with the brush-aluminum body.

The pre-installed photos I saw on the device looked amazing — the colors truly popped — and I took some pictures that looked good, though a demo room is not the optimal environment for art photography. The iPhone SE can take Live Photos (photos with a little motion attached before and after the still), and you can watch them play back by holding your finger on a photo for an extra second. I did this and it worked just as it does on the 6S. There is no 3D touch, so pressing harder on the screen won’t activate anything. I like 3D touch a lot and am excited to see what Apple does with it in future devices, but I don’t miss it on the iPhone SE.

Not only can the iPhone SE shoot 4K video, but it can also edit multiple 4K streams in real time. I saw this in action and realized that I may never have seen so much power in such a small device.

Pay as you go

The iPhone SE has a Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the home button, which means you get full Apple Pay support. I could see one of the Apple demonstrators bring up a credit card, but obviously I couldn’t try it out.

The lack of physical design changes also means that buttons and ports like power, audio (the 3.5mm jack lives!), volume buttons and lock are still in their iPhone 5 and 5S positions (yes, all your old cases will still work). But the now somewhat classic chassis also means that there’s no room for all the extra battery you get in the larger iPhone 6S. Battery life will likely be comparable to the iPhone 5S. On the other hand, the introduction of an A9 chip and updated M9 motion co-processor could mean a more aggressive power drain. We won’t know for sure until I start testing. In fact, for as much as the iPhone SE looks and feels like its 5 and 5S predecessors, I need to do a lot more digging before I'm satisfied that nothing else has changed.

It's also worth noting that the iPhone SE will be running iOS 9.3, an OS update that was just released to the public. It brings a handful of new features that could impact the overall smartphone experience.

The Apple iPhone SE is now Apple’s smallest, most powerful and affordable iPhone, but it doesn’t move forward the innovation bar on any level. This does not make it a bad phone. It is designed not for early adopters, but for those who feel disenfranchised by the big-phone push and wonder why they have to pay so darn much for any smartphone.

This phone checks off the price, performance and size boxes in a way that should please that audience. It’ll probably be, to borrow a phrase, a huge seller.

The iPhone SE goes on preorder on March 24 and will be on sale in stores on March 30.

BONUS: The Apple event in under 90 seconds

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